The Hallowell City Council plans to review the proposed municipal budget and get an update on the design and construction of a fire station during Monday’s meeting.
City Manager Nate Rudy said the budget request of $6,045,257, which is due for a second reading, represents a $65,417 reduction from the budget’s initial version. The decrease was partly a result of a reduction of City Hall maintenance and cemetery expenses.
The second reading includes a new bond payment of $54,580 for the $2.36 million bond approved by voters in April, and the budget includes a $229,000 increase in the projected Regional School Unit 2 budget. Rudy said he hopes the council approves the budget during the July meeting.
Rudy expects to update the council on the progress of the fire station design and the building firm selection process. The city has begun accepting proposals from firms interested in designing and building the city’s fire station, and the deadline for proposals has been extended one week to Wednesday.
The new station will be built using up to $1 million in money given to the city by an anonymous donor. Last month, the city announced an agreement with Stevens Commons developer Matt Morrill that will allow the station to be built where the campus’s Falwell Building now stands, behind the Stevens Building on Coos Lane.
The timeline included in the document on the city’s website states that firm interviews will take place June 19, with the winning proposal and award letter being issued June 20. Officials hope construction will begin by Aug. 8 and will be “substantially completed” by April 1, 2018, and “fully completed to city specifications” by June 30, 2018.
The council will also be updated on the city’s plan to use bond money to acquire land at the Dummer House for a municipal parking lot.
Subject to negotiation, the current plan is that Linda Bean, one of the heirs to the L.L. Bean fortune, will sell the historic Dummer House – on Dummer’s Lane – to Arron Sturgis of Preservation Timber Framing in Berwick. The city will acquire the land, except for a parcel on the corner of Central and Second streets, which will go to Sturgis.
Rudy said Sturgis will pay to move the house to that lot, and the house will have a conservation easement placed upon it. Maine Preservation will receive a stipend from the city to make sure the easements are maintained in perpetuity. Rudy said the amount of the stipend has not yet been negotiated.
The city then will decide what type of parking lot to install on the land using the money from the bond. Rudy said a limited amount of parking can be developed for that sum of money, but a 30-spot asphalt parking lot cannot be built for $300,000. Earthwork needs to be done, the city manager said, and the cost of asphalt is surprisingly high.
In other business, the council expects to consider directing the city manager to post the required “notice of intentions to lay out” a new road at Stevens Commons, and to consider accepting a $95,000 grant from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to repair the outer Central Street culvert.
The council meets at 6 p.m. Monday at City Hall.
Jason Pafundi can be contacted at 621-5663 or at:
jpafundi@centralmaine.com
Twitter: jasonpafundiKJ
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